Made entirely of flaws stitched together with good intentions…

Live Below The Line

Through taking part in Live Below The Line, I am hoping to raise money for The Salvation Army International Development. When people donate to a cause, they want to know where their money is going……..

Where the money goes:

The Salvation Army International Development (UK & Ireland) are investing in people all around the world to reach their potential through our GENERATION programme.

The world’s income is incredibly skewed towards the rich few and away from the majority. The poorest in our world, that’s 1.4 billion people, live on less than $1.25 a day – about £1 in the UK.

Support our GENERATION programme to shift the balance of inequality and wealth and help our world’s poorest people to reach their potential.

Through GENERATION, The Salvation Army is helping provide people with access to small loans, grants and skills training to work their own way out of poverty. By investing in this impoverished generation we can see them transformed into a generation of hopeful, empowered people who are able to stand tall, with their heads held high, having lifted them, their families and communities out of poverty.

Margaret’s Story:

Margaret Banda, from Malawi, is just one of the people who has been helped in this way.

Just a few years ago life for her was very tough. As a widow with three children, she was struggling to provide for them and could not afford for them to go to school or have enough food to eat. She was managing to earn just 75 pence a day.

Margaret heard about a Salvation Army programme empowering people to set up their own businesses. Margaret was given an initial loan of £25 which she used to set up a mobile restaurant in the local market. She buys and cooks meat, rice, beans and nshima (a staple food made from maize) in the morning, prepares it in the afternoon and sells it in the evening, often working until 10 pm. It is a long and tiring day, but one that yields much better rewards for her hard work.

She now earns up to £10 a day, which means she can now afford enough food for her and her family – food that lasts for three meals a day instead of just one or two – as well as send her children to school and improve their chances for the future.

Life is still a struggle, but Margaret is no longer in extreme poverty. With support and investment, she is shifting the balance and working her way to a better life.